UK retail billionaire Mike Ashley has shifted more of his money into a company he set up to drive the development of a luxury residential project in Chelsea, one of the most exclusive parts of London.
The Frasers Group Plc founder allocated £150 million ($190 million) during May to McGrove Developments, which was established in 2014 and is owned through his personal investment firm, Mash Holdings, according to UK registry filings.
The move boosts one of his biggest bets outside the sector that made his fortune and will help finance the project, which consists of 78 high-end apartments, an on-site gym and concierge services.
The latest funds should provide “the necessary capital” to complete the project located on a former site of UK retailer John Lewis, Mash Holdings said in its 2022 results, released Wednesday. McGrove Developments had £237 million of loans from Mash outstanding as of April 2022, based on latest filings.
A representative for Ashley, 58, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ashley has also bought Miami real estate and was the owner for more than a decade of Premier League football team Newcastle United, which he sold to a Saudi Arabia-controlled consortium during 2021 for £305 million. Ashley, who pledged Frasers Group shares in March to secure a loan from HSBC Holdings Plc, now has a net worth of about $4.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Ashley, known for his dealmaking, started building up his business empire during the 1980s, originally calling his retail company Sports Direct. He sold almost £1 billion of the Mansfield, England-based retailer’s stock during its 2007 initial public offering in London and surfaced as the main financier for the Chelsea residential development eight years later.
The London site was acquired with planning permission but sought new planning consent for a different design, which also includes a retail unit and basement car parking as well as a residents’ business suite.
London’s most expensive homes are defying a wider decline in the city’s housing market. House prices in the upper echelons of the city’s residential properties remained broadly flat in the 12 months to June, even as homes priced at less than £2 million dropped almost 7% in the same period, according to a report from broker JLL.
That’s largely because the city’s luxury properties are typically bought by wealthy, less debt-reliant buyers. Almost half of homes in Kensington and Chelsea — an affluent borough which also covers Knightsbridge — were purchased in cash over the last 12 months, JLL said in the report, compared with just 19% across the whole of London.
--With assistance from Katie Linsell, Damian Shepherd and Deirdre Hipwell.